Whom Shayṭān Hates Most

The Messenger of Allah asked him: tell me, Iblīs, whom among Allah's creation do you hate most? He answered: you, O Muḥammad — among all creation I hate you most, and after you, every other prophet of Allah. There is no one in the whole of creation that I hate more than you and those like you. The Messenger of Allah confirmed that Shayṭān was alone in this, and that every prophet of Allah was his greatest foe.

He then asked whom Shayṭān hated most after that — one might guess at some notorious political figure of the age, such as George W. Bush, but that was not the answer. Shayṭān answered: the young man or young woman who has given up pleasure, temptation and desire, who controls the nafs for Allah's sake and lives in obedience and worship to Him — such a one I hate most of all. After that, he said, the people of knowledge, the ʿulamāʾ, who act upon what they know, and who decline all that is doubtful — the people of waraʿ, who keep away from the grey area between the lawful and the forbidden because their hearts tell them it is doubtful. Then the very clean — he loves filthy people, and hates those so scrupulous that they wash three times whatever they wish to cleanse. Then the poor who are patient, who neither ask others for what they need nor complain to anyone. Then the wealthy who are thankful, who give zakāh and ṣadaqah lawfully and spend their wealth lawfully. Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) then lists fourteen further enemies named after the Messenger of Allah: the knowledgeable who act on their knowledge; the readers of the Qur'an who pattern their lives upon it; the callers to prayer who call the adhān for Allah's sake; the poor who are content; the compassionate; the generous; those who perform the morning prayer at its time; the advisers and the reformers; those who abstain from unlawful food and from unlawful relations; those who are always in a state of wuḍūʾ; the modest; those who place their trust in Allah; the benefactors of the poor; and those devoted to Allah's service.